Institutional Review Board

About the Institutional Review Board

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee mandated by federal law to protect
the rights and welfare of human subjects participating in research activities. The
IRB achieves this primary function by educating researchers. The IRB assesses the
risks and benefits associated with a particular study, so that they can decide if
the study is ethically and legally sound.

Utah Valley University encourages scholarly research and activities for faculty, students
and relevant staff. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) furthers the University's
research mission by:

Reviewing proposed research involving human participants, in order to protect citizens
against potential risks of research participation while promoting high-quality studies
that can provide rewards to participation and/or society;

Educating the larger university community about ethical issues in human participants'
research;

Overseeing compliance with federal, state, and university regulatory requirements
for human participant research.

All human subject research must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Colleges and universities that have human subject research being conducted on their
campuses should have an IRB operating within federal regulations. UVU has signed a
federal-wide assurance stating that all human subject research being conducted on
campus will be approved by UVU's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Research at UVU
involving human subjects being conducted without IRB approval is breaking federal
regulation/law and puts all federal funding that UVU receives (e.g. federal research
grants, student federal aid) in jeopardy.

For all UVU-affiliated studies involving human subjects requiring IRB approval, it
is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator (PI) to submit required documentation
to the UVU IRB Administrator. UVU does not endorse research that does not follow this
protocol.

The UVU IRB website will provide all the information you need to take the IRB mandatory
training and submit protocols for approval. Let us know if you have questions.